[Ricky_63]

I can see that most of us are welcoming the proposed move of the government. There are pros & cons to any & every policy. I think there are more pros here than cons.

Healthy competition is always welcome. This move will possibly make waves in the automotive industry & may teach a thing or two to our present manufacturing companies on "how to build quality cars" at a reasonable price & quality wherein rattling body parts are taken for granted !!!



Cheers

[mayankjha1806]

• I will always remember paying Rs 4 for receiving a call on my first mobile and paying Rs 8 for out going calls that i made (all per minute).
• I will always remember standing in queue of STD booths every week to make calls to my parents back home in mid 90's and would spend close to Rs 100 every weekend on just the STD calls.
• I will always remember and get confused when i called my uncle in USA and the STD money counter will run as fast as the seconds counter, guess we used to pay about 60-70 Rs for ISD's.

And what do i pay today, for all my ISD's and STD's is probably a fraction of that (This is when cost of living is sky high and everything is more expensive). I still laugh remembering those days but the truth is competition does bring best for customers, in absence of that companies pocket most of the profit (Sometimes over 60% and still complain)

[EP.]

Looks like the Japanese are also getting a sweet deal with our Govt.

Here's the link:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...n-cheaper.html

[harimakesh]

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

• I will always remember paying Rs 4 for receiving a call on my first mobile and paying Rs 8 for out going calls that i made (all per minute).
• I will always remember standing in queue of STD booths every week to make calls to my parents back home in mid 90's and would spend close to Rs 100 every weekend on just the STD calls.
• I will always remember and get confused when i called my uncle in USA and the STD money counter will run as fast as the seconds counter, guess we used to pay about 60-70 Rs for ISD's.

And what do i pay today, for all my ISD's and STD's is probably a fraction of that (This is when cost of living is sky high and everything is more expensive). I still laugh remembering those days but the truth is competition does bring best for customers, in absence of that companies pocket most of the profit (Sometimes over 60% and still complain)

Today Reliance,Bharti, Tata telecom uses VOIP for their telephony by not making it not freely available for Inidan public. Still ISD they charge nearly 15 rupees while VOIP is just 1 rupee or less for ISD 's.

SimilarlyIndian auto manufacturers such as TATA , Mahindra, Birla's are so used to govt protection only to remain in-efficient and won't prefer to get out of license raj attitude in their automotive business.

Think the low import duty scenario putting BMW 3 series Diesel costing 15-18L and Tata's Aria costing 16L and Mahindra world SUV planned price band of 24 lakhs. Indian auto manufacturers keeping 110 duty advantage ONLY to keep their product prices high.

Hyundai Santa fe costing 24L is ridiculous and Mahindra world SUV trying to match its price in this band is day light roberry.

When Hyundai Korea can match / exceed Japanese Toyota/Hondas in global market, we Indians must do the same by true quality reflecting in TATA/ Mahindra/Birla automobiles.

Do not fleece Indians on automobile purchase.
Excise duty+ sales tax +octroi is in the range of 20-30% State Govt charge 10-16% as road tax and each stretch of motorable roadin India is on TOLL.

[Hammy]

Originally Posted by nikapur

why penalise the customers? ...the manufactures should fend for themselves!!

+1 to Nikapur's post. By the time the European manufacturers set up their plants in India and assemble locally, hum bhagwaan ko pyaare hojayenge

[kmirchia]

This will be a beautiful thing if it happens but it raised a few questions in my mind :
1. Will the homologation cap at $40k still remain or will that also be lowered? If not then realistically will not be of much benefit if individuals want to bring in cars. A huge chunk of the cars people would like to import are below a 40K USD and the cut in duty would not be of any help there.

2. I don't think it'll be possible for the manufacturers to retains the benefits and not pass them on to the consumers. Even if the government doesn't make them, someone like Jaguar or Volvo would come along and set a price which the likes of BMW, Merc and Audi will have to match or better.
Besides, considering how aggressive BMW is with pricing, there is hardly a doubt that most of the benefit would be passed on.

3. If we're talking about the cars being made in plants here, then I can't comprehend why despite the much lower cost of labour, do we still end up paying more than other countries. (and let's not forget they have 1/3rd the features of their European siblings) If everyone's so concerned about un-employment, make the duty structure such that EU manufacturers want to set up plants here and export cars from here like Hyundai does.
But even that is too much for our babu raj - if an Indian manufacturer like TATA had to go through such a mess for the NANO, how can we expect the government to do anything for foreign players.

[Warhound]

Originally Posted by kmirchia

This will be a beautiful thing if it happens but it raised a few questions in my mind :
1. Will the homologation cap at $40k still remain or will that also be lowered?

It should stay at $40k hopefully. I could understand that if duty is waived on products that sell in low volumes, but to completely erode the segment is something else. Would hyundai have ever set up huge factories in India had it been able to import vehicles duty free in India ?

Originally Posted by kmirchia

3. If we're talking about the cars being made in plants here, then I can't comprehend why despite the much lower cost of labour, do we still end up paying more than other countries.

The answer to that lies with volume. We dont sell as many high end vehicles compared to the rest of the world.

[DNM]

I just hope this really happens! Cars like the Audi A8 and the Jaguar XF will be very common on the road!!! New drivers can have Mercedes as their first cars! That would be so awesome!

[sunishsamuel]

Originally Posted by DNM

I just hope this really happens! Cars like the Audi A8 and the Jaguar XF will be very common on the road!!! New drivers can have Mercedes as their first cars! That would be so awesome!

And i hope that will start the era or responsible driving or would it get worse because people would have the (over)confidence that their cars like benz and bmw would stop even at the worse situation ? But possibly not, as they know the costs involved in repairing cars and would love to keep them clean.

No dealer could confirm price drop, but then i'd love to see the mercs and bmw more affordable than now. What if toyota fortuner or pajero costs becomes about 12l, that would be a sweet choice ?


The domestic industry would learn to improve quality and offer more features for a lesser price (like in US and europe) and following might become standard features:

- ABS
- ESP
- Airbags

Reminds of the 80's when maruti was launched, people cribbed saying its dabba, papad, unsafe etc. People used to swear by padmini and ambassador, and now ? Both the companies could not reinvent themselves and ultimately ended up in a mess, though they did try some collabarations like Peugeot and fiat. If Indian companies want to compete with european and japanese brands then they need to be coming with equally good options for their vehicles. I am thrilled

[akj53]

I feel that this move will increase competition which will lead to all round price reduction to benefit customers. But I doubt that Firangi manufacturers will pass on the full benefit of duty reduction to customers, though they will increase their profitability due to increased sales.

Local manufacturers will not get hurt as most of the CBU imports cater to high-end of the market and will still retail for more than 15 lacs while most of the local production is of sub 10 lac cars. Manufacturers like Honda who believe in "Giving least while charging maximum" will get hurt.

A Camry for less than 15 lacs and a XF for about 30 lacs will make for quite an interesting proposition. Let us wait and see

[Abhi_Automobile]

The problem is:

Who on God's green earth would consider buying Mahindra's W201@15 lacs if the BMW X1 is available for 18 lacs. That's where it hurts. However, it's the same situation everywhere around the world. So, why not compete instead of crying!

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Abhi_Automobile

The problem is:

Who on God's green earth would consider buying Mahindra's W201@15 lacs if the BMW X1 is available for 18 lacs. That's where it hurts. However, it's the same situation everywhere around the world. So, why not compete instead of crying!

In response/addition to this,
An X Lac car should be worth X lacs.
Period.

If its a mahindra i pay 15 lacs for, i sould get 15 lacs worth of car.
If its a BMW i pay the 18 lacs for, i want/demand 18 lacs worth of car for it.

Brand/ Snob value has an intangible cost.
BMW capitalizes on that, and bakes it into its profits.

Mahindra is unable to do that against the german(yet.I hope they do so FANTASTICALLY inthe future!)
I'd say that this move will bring about an even playing field, with more VFM going across all sectors.
It may be darwinian in the long term, but it will give us , as consumers, more choice......

[sivsk_E36M3]

The proposed Duty cuts are well over due.

And need to come in.

India has always been very proctective of it's auto manufacturers, but for the wrong reasons.

Lets face it, The huge Tax revenue that Govt's earn is ridiculous, lets look at the huge spurt in sales of seriously high end cars. Money in the bag for the exchequer.

Manufacturers have had to pass on the duty costs onto the buyer. A manufacturer has to be careful not to have a large profit margin on a highend car else savvy buyers will import themselves.

However what manufacturers have been cunningly doing is pricing the rest of the product range.

If you have a flagship model in excess of 1cr it means that you're entry level car can be priced at a higher price than it should command, its natural. So companies have been making good money on the entry level cars take the 3 series, after all they are a business not a charity, however BMW have taken large steps, bold in my opinion to shake the tree, with launches of the CE and price cuts in general.

It shows that they've a margin to play with, lets face it it's not the volumes of production being high enough to reduce the cost per unit, and localisation is still not enough to make real changes, that is until they manufacture the drive train here!

If the cut happens, there will a rejig of prices of all models in a companies range of varying percentages.

Audi also made a fair stab, but hid behind BMW & Merc to keep their prices up too.

Mercedes India IMO had caused the high pricing of competitors as they were established as the sole Luxury car seller, there was no competition and the priced what they felt was apt, leads me to one fact how did they go from intial investment to breakeven in a very short period of time, if i'm not mistaken it was within 3 years. They have been manufacturing here for the longest almost 20 yrs and still can't bring their prices down.

However i'm sure that the homologation laws will stay, that is all they can do to protect the Local manufacturers, the price cap and engine size laws will stand.

Else you can see the mini 1 blowing in at 6-7 lakh as well as others.

But its a wake up call for our home grown manufacturers to start buliding better cars, more up to the world mark.

I have one example what would you have a Tata Aria or a Ford S-MAX ST.

Its time for a real shake-up

[mac187]

Originally Posted by sivsk_E36M3

The proposed Duty cuts are well over due.

And need to come in.

India has always been very proctective of it's auto manufacturers, but for the wrong reasons.

Lets face it, The huge Tax revenue that Govt's earn is ridiculous, lets look at the huge spurt in sales of seriously high end cars. Money in the bag for the exchequer.

Manufacturers have had to pass on the duty costs onto the buyer. A manufacturer has to be careful not to have a large profit margin on a highend car else savvy buyers will import themselves.

However what manufacturers have been cunningly doing is pricing the rest of the product range.

If you have a flagship model in excess of 1cr it means that you're entry level car can be priced at a higher price than it should command, its natural. So companies have been making good money on the entry level cars take the 3 series, after all they are a business not a charity, however BMW have taken large steps, bold in my opinion to shake the tree, with launches of the CE and price cuts in general.

It shows that they've a margin to play with, lets face it it's not the volumes of production being high enough to reduce the cost per unit, and localisation is still not enough to make real changes, that is until they manufacture the drive train here!

If the cut happens, there will a rejig of prices of all models in a companies range of varying percentages.

Audi also made a fair stab, but hid behind BMW & Merc to keep their prices up too.

Mercedes India IMO had caused the high pricing of competitors as they were established as the sole Luxury car seller, there was no competition and the priced what they felt was apt, leads me to one fact how did they go from intial investment to breakeven in a very short period of time, if i'm not mistaken it was within 3 years. They have been manufacturing here for the longest almost 20 yrs and still can't bring their prices down.

However i'm sure that the homologation laws will stay, that is all they can do to protect the Local manufacturers, the price cap and engine size laws will stand.

Else you can see the mini 1 blowing in at 6-7 lakh as well as others.

But its a wake up call for our home grown manufacturers to start buliding better cars, more up to the world mark.

I have one example what would you have a Tata Aria or a Ford S-MAX ST.

Its time for a real shake-up

They may have entered the market at a tempting price band but i doubt that they would lower the prices of their cars by 30% (whatever mentioned in the article) and pass on all the benefit to the customer. Instead this duty cut would help them pocket a higher margin. That would not have any real benefit to customers now, will it?

[Ricky_63]

Originally Posted by DNM

I just hope this really happens! Cars like the Audi A8 and the Jaguar XF will be very common on the road!!! New drivers can have Mercedes as their first cars! That would be so awesome!

I think the above has been said in jest . New drivers have a LOT to learn before sitting behind the wheel of a Merc. As for the R8 & A8 & JagXF being common on the road, I have doubts on that too.

In this segment the cost of ownership read repair & service bills are high, so though one may be able to "buy" a fancy car. He will also have to think of the service & repair bills before hand !! Don't you think.




Cheers